Free Visioness by Lincoln Law

own
task at hand. The sounds had made it seem that everything that was happening
was natural, though she hadn’t considered it at the time. It frightened her,
knowing this power her father had over her.
    “Well there is one thing we
can try, if we want confirmation that someone is in your mind, and that
you’re not alone in your dreams. It won’t confirm whether it is your father or
someone else imitating him in your mind, but it will confirm a foreign presence.
I think that might help, at the least, to let you decide what you want to do.”
    Adabelle’s spirits lifted
slightly. If it was a Nhyx and not her father, and therefore an illusion, then
there would be no reason to go anywhere near the Oen’Aerei, and no need to
inspect the Dream Sphere into which her father had been sealed.
    “What is it?” she asked.
“I’ll do anything.”
    “A phantasmagory,” he said,
closing the book with a snap. “Literally, a phantasmagory is a myriad of
images, not necessarily connected to each other, all coming at once in quick
succession. One usually suffers them if ill with a dark fever. In Dreaming,
however, a phantasmagory can be used as a test to see if another mind is in
your dreams. The world around you will change, the scenery flipping from one
thing to the next, but the figure who has invaded will stay the same. The
invader’s precursor will remain noticeable, their image unchanging. It will
warn you that it is more than a Nhyx or a horror created by the dream itself.”
    Adabelle nodded, happier now
at the prospect of having some much-needed answers.
    “But is there any way for me
to tell if it’s my father?”
    “Unfortunately, no. Nothing
short of checking the dream sphere will confirm that, and I know you’re quite
reluctant to go to the Oen’Aerei at all.” He took her hand, patting it softly
with his free one. “But you have our support. We’re here to help. And if
matters do worsen, we can station some Oen’Aerei around your room to keep you
safe.”
    That’s the last thing I
want: more Oen’Aerei.
    “Thank you,” she replied.
    “And take some comfort in
your younger sister’s unusual and apparently useful inability to dream. So long
as she cannot dream, she is safe from your father’s touch.”
    “And I suppose that is
something to hold onto.”
    The professor nodded.
“Indeed it is. Now, anything else you require of me?”
    “Not at all, professor,
thank you.” She shook his hand and left.
    On the short trip back to
her room, she was troubled with thoughts of her sister. If her father broke
free of the dream, and faced her in flesh and blood, then her sister was in
danger.
    But they disposed of a body, she thought. She remembered
witnessing the burning. His mind was sealed away in a sphere, his body
destroyed so that he could never return. Not even the greatest and most
terrible criminals were ever left to suffer such a fate. Yet her father had. His
mind sealed away for an eternity, to exist, but to never feel or touch or smell
or see.
    My sister is safe, she thought, assuring
herself as much as confirming the professor’s own suggestions. My sister is
safe. There is no need to trouble her with matters she needn’t deal with.
Father cannot touch her. She doesn’t even need to know.
    This was how she could
protect her. She was the older sister; it was her job to care for her younger
sister. Not the other way around. It was a promise she made to her mother, not
that her mother had ever been there to hear it. Adabelle had promised to keep Charlotte
safe.
    How am I meant to keep her
safe when I can’t even keep myself away from trouble?

Chapter Four
A Warning
     
    The guilt of hiding
something so monumentally world-shattering from Charlotte weighed upon Adabelle
like a boulder being rolled uphill. Just when it seemed the guilt had released
its hold from her, she saw her sister again, or she said something, and there
the boulder was again, at the bottom of the hill.
    Added to that was